Xena had caught up with her tribe again. They hadn't moved very far. She stood in front of the tents. It was early enough that no one had come out yet. She hesitated, dreading what was coming. Apologizing ought to get easier with time, but it didn't.
"You're her daughter. She loves you and nothing you can do can change that," Valentina said comfortingly. "You should know that with a daughter of your own."
It was true. It made her think of Eve more than Camilla though. Eve had turned into a ruthless Roman, murdering Joxer, her friend and another of her soulmates, but it didn't change the love a mother has for her child. Maybe her mother would forgive her without having to defend her hometown from a warlord. It didn't change her feelings of nervousness.
Her mother came out of the heavily weathered tent. She froze and then took in all of them standing there, her gaze only softening slightly when she saw the baby. "Has your army dwindled down to two?" she asked sarcastically. "I thought I was clear the last time that I don't want you around here. You're dead to me. We don't want help like you give."
"I know. I'm sorry. I was wrong to do what I did. Self-defense is one thing, vengeance another, but what I did afterwards can only be described as slaughters."
Her mother must have been expecting a slew of curses. Minimally, she had probably expected her to try and defend herself. An apology was a surprise that took her off guard.
"It's no excuse," Xena went on, "but I guess all I can say is that I didn't think. I only felt, and what I felt was rage, but I don't feel it anymore. I'm in a good place now. And I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
Before her mother could reply, Hercules came into the camp carrying water. "Xena! I mean Xenia." He set the buckets down, rightfully wary.
"Sorry about before, Hercules," she said, owing him an apology as well. "I wasn't myself. Or maybe I was too much myself. But I remember everything now. I even met up with a certain bard."
He looked at Valentina closer. "Nice to see you again."
"Likewise? " Valentina said.
He turned his attention back to Xena. "When you expelled me from your camp, I tracked down your mother. I believed she had the most hope of appealing to your better nature. I should have thought of Gabrielle. She always was a positive influence on you."
"That's me!" Valentina exclaimed. "Wait, I knew Hercules too? This gets more and more astonishing!"
"Would someone shut her up?" Ares asked.
No one was more astonished by all this than her mother. "And I'm just supposed to believe you had some kind of blinding revelation like Paul on Damascus Road?" she asked with folded arms. She wasn't an easy sell. She never had been.
"Not quite the same but similar I suppose." She looked at Ares, Camilla, and Gabrielle/Valentina. "Love did change me."
"I want to believe it," she said slowly.
Xena took Camilla and brought her over. "I know I will have to prove myself, and I will. In the meantime, meet your granddaughter."
Her reservations melted in the face of her grandchild, and she took her in her arms at once.
"I also wanted you here for my wedding."
Her mother looked up in surprise, but Hercules' mouth dropped open, and Ares enjoyed it entirely too much. "It was fortuitous we ran into you. You can be my best man, little brother," he goaded. "Now that we're all one happy family, I guess I better find someone to marry us."
He disappeared before their eyes, and Xena had to reach out to keep her mother, who'd had completely monotheistic views before today, from collapsing in surprise. "Is he-is he-"
"The god of war," she finished for her, "yes."
"And you're marrying him?" she asked, struggling with the idea.
"Yes, he loves me, and I love him. Just because I'm going to be married to War though, don't think I'll be married to war. I know now conquering is not the answer."
Camilla started to cry, and Valentina went over to help soothe her, leaving Hercules and Xena to talk.
"I'm not sure I understand why you're marrying my brother," he began. "You have the memories of all the times he's manipulated you and tried to turn you back to the dark side. Of all the wicked things he's done in general."
"You don't have to understand, you're not the one marrying him," she said teasingly.
"You're my friend. I don't want to see you do something you'll regret. And I'm just afraid you don't know what you're getting yourself into."
"I do know better than anybody. That's why I can see the difference him. He's a kinder, gentler god than he used to be. And besides, I of all people, have to believe that a person, any person, can change or what hope do I have? What hope do any of us have for that matter because we all have an inclination toward evil."
"Fair enough. I really hope that's true for your sake if nothing else," he said tenderly.
Xena appreciated why he wouldn't try to interfere even though he had good reason to distrust him. It was the mark of a good friend that he let her make her own choices and hoped for the best.
"We better move out of here before everyone else is awake," Xena said wryly. "My own mother doubts my good intentions. I know they'll want me gone from here."
They all moved out to a nearby field hidden by a cover of trees.
There was a shower of sparkles, and Aphrodite was there squealing, "I just love weddings. This is all so fab."
"You'll be at the wedding too?" Xena asked. This wedding party was getting larger by the minute.
"Totally. I wouldn't miss my older bro finally tie the knot for like the whole wide world. Love has conquered war," she said with a giggle.
"I don't know if you want to say that in those exact term," Hercules said. "I don't think he'd take it well."
"Too true, Big Bro," she said. Then her eyes alighted onto her niece. "Awww," she said, going over to make a grab for her.
Her mother was starting to come to grip with things but was still too alarmed to protest, stunned from Aphrodite's rather grand entrance.
A wave of her hand proved there were still those that worshiped Love as she had dressed Camilla up in a flowery pink dress, a change from her simple black silk frock. It was her prerogative as an aunt she supposed, but Ares was going to flip when he saw it.
"Like isn't she the most adorable baby you've ever seen?" the love goddess asked. "I always knew you two would make beautiful babies together."
Xena grinned. Only she would look at the god of war and a hero committed to stopping those wars and think about what kind of babies they would make if they were a couple. "Thanks."
"You're not getting married in your leathers, are you?" she asked, sounding a little scandalized.
"Given your expression, I guess I'm not now."
"You got that right, Warrior Babe," she said, changing her armor to a silken red number trimmed in gold that was still in her and Ares' taste but regal enough to serve as a wedding dress.
Ares returned with a priest, the true priest of the temple turned church. It was almost sentimental of him really. Though it'd probably had to more to do with the fact that he was the nearest one capable of performing an official ceremony.
The priest was befuddled at first, but he soon relaxed. He decided it must have been a dream, and he soon had them saying the church's vows.
"I take you to be my wife and my spouse and I pledge to you the faith of my body, that I will be faithful to you and loyal with my body and my goods and that I will keep you in sickness and in health and in whatever condition it will please the Lord to place you, and that I shall not exchange you for better or worse until the end."
Maybe it was a little too schmaltzy coming from Ares. Was he really capable of such total loyalty? Did she really believe it wouldn't matter to him how she changed? What if she gave up war and fighting completely as she would in one of her lifetimes? She didn't know, but she did know Ares believed he could be that loyal and love her however she changed, and that was enough for her.
"I take you to be my husband and my spouse and I pledge to you the faith of my body, that I will be faithful to you and loyal with my body and my goods and that I will keep you in sickness and in health and in whatever condition it will please the Lord to place you, and that I shall not exchange you for better or worse until the end."
She meant her vows as well. She couldn't say when the end would be. She would be reborn, and she wouldn't remember this day or what had transpired in this life or her life as a warrior princess, but she meant it in this one. If a god could be a soulmate, she had no doubt that he would be one of hers because her life, her heart, was most definitely entwined with his.
